Power tool news hit the Wall Street Journal recently when Stanley agreed to buy Black and Decker. Stanley’s “paying” Black & Decker by giving their shareholders 1.275 Stanley shares for each Black and Decker share they currently own.

I’m not sure if this means you can trade your Black and Decker tools for 1.275 Stanley tools… I will have to get back to you on that one.
image via GadgetGrid.com

This article is an overview of all the most interesting Stanley/Black and Decker tidbits I could find from around the web… In order of how interesting I think they are :)

1) As far as we can now tell (according to this article from 247Wallst and comments from this post at fine home building and comments from this post at ToolMonger and this thread at SawmillCreek.org), here are all the tool brands now owned by one company:
Stanley
StanleyWorks
FatMax
Bostitch
Facom
Proto
Mac Tools
Sonitrol
Stanley Security Solutions
Best
Vidmar
New Britain
Blackhawk
Wilde
Black & Decker
DeltaDeWalt
Porter-Cable
Emhart Teknologies
Kwikset
Baldwin
Price Pfister
Weiser
DeVilbiss
Oldham
Viper
Hickory
Firestorm

4) According to our pals at ToolSnob, who paid for WSJ access so we don’t have to, there are some anti-trust concerns that may slow the deal down: “The deal does raise issues about limiting competition, said David Balto, former policy director at the Federal Trade Commission under President Bill Clinton. “There are very straightforward antitrust concerns,” Balto said. “These are clearly the two major American handtool makers and they compete quite directly on a wide variety of products. The merger “would hit every handyman in the wallet,” said Balto, who isn’t connected with the deal.”

5) LumberJock jussdandy says: “truthfully it scares me a lot, Ive worked in the cabinet supply business for over 20 years now, delta-porter cable is one of my big lines, Ive used the selling point for a long time that I can gets ya parts fast and Even when it gets older, I can still get you the parts ya need,NOT the case anymore since B&D bought them out, more and more parts not avable any more, I couldn’t get a part for a couple year old shaper a month or so ago. this has happened to me twice in the last month”

6) NCWoodworker jmauldin says “Well, I hate to be the “gloom and doom” person, but I hate to see the merger. B&D, IMHP was at the bottom, merged with DeWalt, which IMHP was much better. Both went to the bottom!”

7) RocketRod at Woodnet said: “Maybe Stanley will make it easier to get replacement parts — I was told by a dealer that B&D was only interested in selling new tools — not repairing old ones”

8) Apparently it was strong security sales that helped Stanley pull off the deal: “But Stanley’s growing security systems and services business – now its largest division – has given it the financial strength to pull off the deal.”

9) The deal will result in “savings of $350 million a year and to add to earnings by the third year.” (via 3rd UPDATE:Stanley Works To Buy Black & Decker For $4.5B In Stk) Through “cuts in corporate overhead and consolidation of some business units, including manufacturing, distribution and purchasing operations… …total job cuts would amount to less than 4,000…”

10) Analysts are buzzing about what color the new organization might be: “What color will the company be? Nothing is announced yet. But Stanley, founded in 1843 is famous for its yellow and black, and the 99-year-old Black & Decker uses orange along with, of course, black. The colors on the PowerPoint presentation today: black, yellow and orange.”